Agenda item

To receive any questions from the public and replies thereto.

Paul Elstone – with regard to Agenda Item  11

The Draft Grand Western Canal Management (GWC) Plan Section 4.7 3 reference Local Landscape Plans says the following.

“The Anaerobic Digester (AD) at Crown Hill has had a considerable detrimental impact on the local landscape.  Also “dust smells and noise plus traffic are also an intrusion on the setting”.

When there was a public uproar concerning the removal of Snake Woods from the GWC conservation area protection. Mid Devon District Council (MDDC) officers and others attempted to quell these concerns by saying that the Canal would  be protected by the planning process. Given the lack of any substantive enforcement action these words have been shown to have little or no value.

Some real and further concerns for the canal.

Red Linhay Anaerobic Digester (AD)

Should a current planning application be approved, it would permit the AD to operate unconstrained this terms of feedstock amounts, source locations and traffic movements. It would effectively reward the applicant for their gross planning breaches and when operating an AD that is neither green or sustainable unlike the applicant wishes to project. 

As a warning there is small print hidden in the application documentation indicating that things could get much worse. 

Pelleting Operation

One of the main contributors to the dust and noise levels at Crown Hill is the unapproved industrial straw pelleting operation the Red Linhay site. An operation including the manufacture of cat litter for sale to the likes of Sainsbury’s and ASDA.  The noise and dust issues requiring workers to use ear defenders and dusk mask. 

MDDC have been aware of this planning breach over a long period, but nothing has been done to constrain. 

Industrial Storage Unit and Office Building

The application for an industrial storage unit and office building at Crown Hill and in very close proximity to the canal. if approved would be significantly closer to the canal bank than any other industrial unit over its full length.  An industrial unit with poor landscape screening and further adding to visual and noise impacts. 

An application including a vehicle refuelling station storing 3,500 litres of diesel fuel positioned within 15 meters of the canal bank. 

A litre of spilled diesel has the potential to pollute 1 million litres of water. The oil sheen could spread for over 6,000 square meters equivalent to a one-kilometre length of the canal. 

Rhode Farm Slurry Lagoon

There is a planning application that could fall below the radar screen, and which could see as many as 16,400 large tractor and tanker movements per year pass the Canal Basin carpark entrance.

This application relates to a 5-million-gallon slurry lagoon to be excavated at the top of Newtes Hill and on Rhode Farm land.  A slurry lagoon being constructed as a hub unit to handle the 12.8 million gallons of cow slurry produced every year at the Bycott industrial dairy farm which is located at Lower Town Halberton.

The detailed calculations and based on sound evidence reveal that there could be as many as 16,400 tractors towing slurry tankers travelling either to or from Newtes Hill and passing the Canal Basin entrance each year.

Calculations show that only 3 million gallons a year should be spread on Rhode Farm land with the remainder transported back down Newtes Hill and Canal Hill for spreading on the applicant’s other land holdings to the east of Tiverton. 

Important to state that weighbridge data shows that many of these tractor/tanker movements will very substantially exceed the legal weight limits adding to road safety concerns.

I would actively encourage this Committee to interrogate this application, given the potential impacts. 

Question 1

Will those Members of this Committee and who are involved in making planning decisions do all they can to protect the canal including it seems from Council Officers and their inaction with regards to enforcement?

The Chair explained that a written response would be given within 10 working days.